Sharing fiber optic line from ISP for security cam

Melli

Commendable
May 19, 2016
4
0
1,510
Fiber optic comes off street to an electrical shed (where I'd like to put a IP security cam), then travels 250ft to home (plugs into modem, then LAN to a router). Instead of running 250ft of CAT 6 cable back to electrical shed from house, to hook up security cam, could I tap into fiber optic line and use it to transmit security cam data?
In the electrical shed, the fiber optic from street, and line going to home are spliced together via a plug of sorts. I've unplugged them to do some work, and plugged them back together without any issues.
I looked into a Wi-Fi extender, but the electrical shed is over a rock hill, so range is limited unless someone knows of a really good Wi-Fi extender?
Open to options...digging a 250ft trench is not high on my list.
 
Solution
Cutting and terminating fiber isn't trivial. You need specialized tools. Don't mess with the fiber. Leave that to the ISP. Either have them move the termination point to the shed and then use conventional copper ethernet for the house or bring conventional copper back from the house. Or use the wireless option I posted previously.
Not sure if it will cost effective but you could put the modem and a router out in the shed. You could plug the cam into one port on the router and then use a pair of media converters to use the fiber. You would put a AP or another router in your house to provide wireless and ethernet ports.

A problem is going to be determining what type of media converter to buy. I am going to guess the fiber is single mode fiber. The optics for this are slightly more expensive than the ones that run multimode fiber. The good news is you can run single mode optics over multimode fiber at the short distance you have so you can just buy single mode optics on your media converters. You would save a little money if you could verify the fiber was multimode.

You also need to get the correct connectors on the media converters to connect to the fiber. You should be able to tell by looking they tend to be either SC or LC.

Now that I think about this it may not be affordable at all. If the fiber is 2 strands you can do the above. If it runs on a single strand like FIOS does then the media converters are extremely expensive. They run 2 different color lasers one for each direction on the same optical interface.

Also if you get your tv over fiber it will go no further than the shed without you getting creative.
 

Melli

Commendable
May 19, 2016
4
0
1,510


Thanks Bill!
Single fiber as I recall from when I watched him add connectors. Looked fairly easy. I would guess SC from when I took them apart...
Yep, the TV is on the line too.
What a bummer...that line is nicely buried, and what better hookup, than to a fiber line.


 

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
Put a pair of wireless bridges like these -- www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168114 between the house and shed. You need only have power at the shed (which you have to have for the camera anyway). The bandwidth required for an IP camera is relatively small.
 

Melli

Commendable
May 19, 2016
4
0
1,510

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
Cutting and terminating fiber isn't trivial. You need specialized tools. Don't mess with the fiber. Leave that to the ISP. Either have them move the termination point to the shed and then use conventional copper ethernet for the house or bring conventional copper back from the house. Or use the wireless option I posted previously.
 
Solution

Melli

Commendable
May 19, 2016
4
0
1,510


Thanks Kanewolf!
Yeah, don't have the tools, but the shed has a junction box...the fiber has connectors down there (male/female or WHY).
I liked the idea of piggybacking the fiber, but that OTA solution you mentioned looks good too...cheaper. Just getting line of sight will require a mast etc., as the shed is down a rock hill.